Data fuel the process of change. Schools and districts should have electronic data systems that store data and make it easy to extract useful information. School leaders and their staff have questions; they need answers. Their data, when stored in a suitable electronic data system, will help them construct better answers to their questions more…

This report summarizes AISD's use of federal Title V, Part A - Innovative program funds during the 2005-2006 school year.

As state coffers continue to shrink this year, there is less money for education, and much of what is available is earmarked for mandates. Yet the money is out there if one knows how to find, create, or borrow it; the trick is to be creative. In this article, the author offers a dozen daring ideas for generating extra cash. The highest-profile…

This brief will highlight three major findings from Southeast Center for Teaching Quality (SECTQ's) teacher surveys and interviews with more than 160 educators entitled "Unfulfilled Promise: Ensuring High Quality Teachers for Our Nation's Students". It will also profile two districts' approaches to meeting the requirements of NCLB and…

In 1993, Merck & Co., Inc. began an endeavor to make a significant and visible commitment to improving science education by creating the Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) and supported the new venture with a 10-year, $20-million financial commitment. From its inception, MISE had two goals: to raise the interest, participation, and…

The 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as No Child Left Behind, significantly expands the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education and has important implications for rural and small schools. This guide examines 15 areas of the legislation that will have the greatest impact on rural…

This essay describes the broad consideration of educational standards that occurred with a cohort of masters' licensure students in public, urban university and high school contexts. This deliberation over standards was rooted in the model of standards development presented by these future teachers' licensure program and called upon this next…

As additional funding and new legislation increase our focus on literacy, we should consider the findings of a study by the National Staff Development Council and the National Education Association on what works. The study reviews programs that have demonstrated improvements in student learning, and issues key findings for every grade level.

In this article, the author identifies two current--and competing--discourses concerning teaching and public education in general. One is the "official" discourse, embodied in "No Child Left Behind" language, with a focus on accountability, standards, credentials, and testing, accompanied by punitive measures for failing to…

As the focus on school improvement at a state education agency moves from mostly a compliance approach to playing a greater role in capacity building, the agency's leadership needs to rethink student and learning supports. That is the focus of this report. Given that almost half of the chief state school officers have assumed their position in the…

In considering science in afterschool, research was reviewed and is presented in this document on how students learn science; how science is assessed, particularly inquiry science; recommended practices for afterschool science; and current afterschool science programs. Databases such as ERIC, Wilson Web, and PsychINFO were searched using…

The National Accessible Reading Assessment Projects (NARAP) is a collaboration of two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education to conduct research and development on accessible reading assessments for students with disabilities that affect reading. The goal of these projects is to produce research findings and assessment techniques that…

Persistent gaps between the academic achievements of different groups of children are thoroughly documented by the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress and other statistical analyses of state assessments, grades, course selection, and dropout rates. Despite improvements in some years, the gap endures as a consistent and disturbing…

This Non-Regulatory Guidance explains how State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and State agencies for higher education can effectively and correctly use "Title II, Part A" funds to ensure that all teachers are qualified and effective. The Guidance in this document supersedes all prior guidance issued by the Department…

"Brown v. Board of Education" only presumed to eliminate the "de jure" apartheid that existed in 1954. It was never intended to resolve the "de facto" gap in minority achievement that still faces education policymakers today. Sociologist David J. Armor goes beyond "Brown" to identify a set of definite risk…